Live from Arkham Asylum (and City)

Sorry I haven't contributed much to this blog (or any of mine, for that matter) lately - aside from just being in a general Cabin fever funk I've been catching up on my neglected Steam library.

A few months ago I purchased Arkham Asylum GOTY and Arkham City GOTY on Steam during one  particularly awesome sale. There they sat, undownloaded, unused, with the likes of Bioshock 2, Star Wars KOTOR, and Sonic the Hedgehog (I'm reeeaally behind, you guys) among others.

On a whim I decided to play through Asylum, knowing it had gotten rave reviews and was considered to be one of the best superhero video games ever made. What followed was a marathon of play-through, sleep, and searching for Riddler clues without using the various secret maps if I could help it. I quickly found that my favorite tactic was the inverted takedown, where I, as Batman, take down various gun-wielding thugs by stringing them up by the ankles from a gargoyle. Usually by the time I cleared a room a nice pile of inmates had formed under one of them, a look of grotesque satisfaction upon the gargoyle's face that mirrored my own. (This screenshot is from City, actually.)

Asylum was particularly fun in that the gameplay was almost surreal in a sense; the first fight against the two Titans was probably one of the most amusing and anxiety-ridden game fights I've ever had. I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing, and was especially confused when one Titan starting beating up another Titan. The confusion was replaced with joy once I realized I could ride around on their backs and destroy stuff. I imagined Batman's internal monologue to be along the lines of "wheeeeeeee!".

Having won the game by putting the ADD ridden Joker back in his place (Hahaha Batman I will defeat you!..Is that Jack Ryder's helicopter?) I finished the Riddler challenges...and found out that none of my achievements had been registered neither by Windows Live nor Steam.

Now I'm in the middle of Arkham City and find myself frustrated by the prospect that I (as Batman) may be dying of Joker AIDs. Apparently overdosing on a formula that turns one into a giant supermonster with bones sticking out all willy nilly does a number to the body.  The prospect of the Joker dying is actually really, really depressing to me - I mean, he's a psychopath and all around asshole and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people, but it's still kinda sad. However, I had read awhile back that Mark Hamill was retiring from voicing the Clown Prince of Crime after City and I could see no better send-off than letting the Joker go out with a bang. And Joker AIDs, which he has spread to about 2000 people in Gotham, apparently.  (Full Disclosure: AIDs is never funny. However, the Joker does many things in poor taste, so I deemed it appropriate to refer to his mysterious illness in the game as such.)

The only issues I've had game-play wise with City were controls. It's taken a bit of finagling to accommodate easy to access controls using a laptop (without a mouse) but I think I've got it figured out now. Prior to the control modification I had come to the conclusion that I would not make a very good Batman (for many of the same reasons outlined here). That, and the fact that Andrew pointed out that I would never get through saying anything in the "Bale voice" without laughing hysterically.

I've therefore made the decision to repeat all of Batman's lines with aforementioned gravelly, ridiculous voice.

That's all for now; I've got some political prisoners to rescue!